WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 So I want you to imagine holding a record album 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:06.820 so grotesque and honestly so controversial that 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:11.240 music executives spent a staggering $250 ,000 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.480 to furiously hunt down every single copy. Right, 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:17.179 like a massive corporate panic. Exactly. And 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:19.800 then they paste a boring new photo over the cover 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:23.730 and physically bury the remaining stock in a 00:00:23.730 --> 00:00:25.949 literal landfill. Honestly, it sounds like some 00:00:25.949 --> 00:00:28.070 sort of underground punk rock stunt from the 00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:31.429 1980s. Totally. But we are actually talking about 00:00:31.429 --> 00:00:34.630 the biggest, most squeaky clean pop cultural 00:00:34.630 --> 00:00:37.409 juggernaut in human history. We're talking about 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:40.560 the Beatles. Yeah. For today's deep dive, we've 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.259 got this massive stack of notes and excerpts 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:45.579 pulled from a really comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:45.579 --> 00:00:48.380 article on The Beatles' 1966 album, Yesterday 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:50.859 and Today. It's such a wild era for them. It 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:53.539 really is. And our mission here is to trace how 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:57.380 a seemingly standard, corporately mandated compilation 00:00:57.380 --> 00:00:59.539 album accidentally sparked one of the biggest 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:01.640 controversies in pop culture history. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:05.299 And what really blows my mind is how This exact 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:07.879 album, like the one the record label tried to 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:10.719 erase from existence, became the ultimate holy 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:13.599 grail for music collectors today. It's a completely 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.579 wild timeline. And it perfectly captures the 00:01:16.579 --> 00:01:19.239 exact moment the Beatles transitioned. Right. 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.500 Because in early 1966, they were actively shedding 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:26.480 that image of the lovable uniform mop tops, like 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:29.079 they were evolving into avant -garde provocateurs. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:31.700 Leaving the matching suits behind. Exactly. And 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:34.780 this album and the absolute chaos surrounding 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:37.920 it is just the physical embodiment of that growing 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.819 pain. Well, to really get why this infamous cover 00:01:40.819 --> 00:01:42.540 art happened, I think we first need to look at 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:45.000 what this album actually was musically. Yeah, 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:47.500 the music is the catalyst here. Because the band 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:50.040 was already furious before a single photo was 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:52.420 even taken. Capital Records, who handled the 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.519 Beatles releases in the United States and Canada, 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:57.340 they had this habit of completely chopping up 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.060 the band's albums. They really did. And at the 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:03.290 time, Capital had a very specific profit -driven 00:02:03.290 --> 00:02:05.620 strategy for the North American market. They 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.099 didn't just release the albums exactly as the 00:02:08.099 --> 00:02:11.060 Beatles meticulously recorded and sequence them 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:14.180 in the UK for EMI. No, of course not. Capital 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:17.020 wanted shorter LPs in the U .S. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:19.919 this. Because I've never understood why a fan 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:23.620 in London got this 14 -track masterpiece, but 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:26.659 a fan in Chicago got an 11 -track jumble. That's 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:29.259 a great question. Is it just that American attention 00:02:29.259 --> 00:02:31.759 spans were shorter? No, no. It all comes down 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:35.259 to the mechanics of U .S. copyright law. and 00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:37.620 publishing royalties. Oh, of course. Follow the 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:40.580 money. Always. So in the United States, there 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:44.199 was this statutory mechanical royalty rate, which 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:47.120 basically meant that a record label had to pay 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.020 the music publishers a couple of cents for every 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:52.360 single song on a record. OK, so it's a per song 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:55.599 fee. Exactly. So if Capital Link 13 songs on 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.759 an American LP, they pay significantly more in 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:01.379 royalties per album. than if they only put 11 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:04.199 songs on it. Wow. Yeah. So by withholding three 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:06.340 or four tracks from every British Beatles album, 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:08.840 Capitol literally saved a fortune in royalties. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.900 That's neat. And as a bonus, after two or three 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:15.979 albums, they had enough leftover tracks to just 00:03:15.979 --> 00:03:19.599 stitch together an entirely new US -only album 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.270 out of thin air. That is just ruthless. I mean, 00:03:22.289 --> 00:03:24.250 they are essentially punishing the American fans 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:26.569 to save pennies and stretching the catalog to 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.409 make double the profit. Oh, it was a wildly lucrative 00:03:29.409 --> 00:03:31.550 strategy for them. While the band had only recorded 00:03:31.550 --> 00:03:34.810 six official albums for EMI in the UK by early 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:39.719 1966. Only six. Yeah, just six. But. Yesterday 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.280 and today was actually the Beatles' ninth Capitol 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.479 album. That's crazy. And their twelfth American 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.479 release overall. Capitol was just manufacturing 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:48.400 a product at that point. And the track list for 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.319 yesterday and today really reflects that. It 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.860 is a total Frankenstein monster. It really is 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:55.020 a hodgepodge. You have these acoustic folksy 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:57.360 tracks from the Help era, like Yesterday and 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.439 Act Naturally. Right. Then you have the mid -tempo 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:02.979 pop of Rubber Soul with Nowhere Man. And then 00:04:02.979 --> 00:04:05.240 you've got non -album singles just tossed in 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:07.479 like Daytripper and We Can Work It Out. A total 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:10.639 mess. Yeah. But the tipping point for the band, 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:13.280 what really set them off, was that Capitol took 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.759 three brand new tracks from the band's upcoming 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:20.220 totally unreleased Revolver album and just slapped 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:22.540 them onto this compilation. Yeah. And those tracks 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:26.000 were, I'm Only Sleeping, Dr. Robert, and Your 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.060 Bird Can Sing. Right. The ripple effect there 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:30.769 was massive. All three of those revolver tracks 00:04:30.769 --> 00:04:33.350 were written by John Lennon. Oh, wow. So they 00:04:33.350 --> 00:04:36.430 just gutted his contribution. Exactly. By stripping 00:04:36.430 --> 00:04:38.509 them out and rushing them onto yesterday and 00:04:38.509 --> 00:04:41.670 today, Capitol severely reduced Lennon's presence 00:04:41.670 --> 00:04:44.439 on the eventual US version of revolver. Isn't 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.000 this basically the 1960s equivalent of a streaming 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.699 algorithm just rearranging an artist's carefully 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:52.300 curated concept album just to maximize playlists? 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:53.920 That's a really good way to look at it. I mean, 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:56.920 isn't this just corporate greed overriding artistic 00:04:56.920 --> 00:04:59.259 vision? Yeah. Because the band, their manager 00:04:59.259 --> 00:05:01.560 Brian Epstein and their producer George Martin, 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:05.279 were furious. They accused Capitol of literally 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.199 butchering their music. And they had every right 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:09.480 to be. What's fascinating here is that the Beatles 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.879 viewed an album as a cohesive statement. And 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.360 the sonic whiplash on yesterday and today actually 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.160 proves their point, because the compilation spans 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:22.279 recordings from June 1965 all the way to May 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:25.019 1966. Which was a lifetime for them back then. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:28.379 A literal lifetime in Beatles years. You are 00:05:28.379 --> 00:05:30.939 hearing a band evolve at light speed. You jump 00:05:30.939 --> 00:05:33.360 from acoustic country straight into early British 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:37.319 psychedelia. Yeah, it's jarring. I mean, Only 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.860 Sleeping features George Harrison playing a backwards 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:43.339 guitar solo. The lyrics are hazy, drug -inspired, 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:45.720 experimental. And then jamming that right next 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:47.779 to a peppy song from a year earlier. It made 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:50.939 absolutely zero artistic sense. So imagine spending 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:53.920 months locked in Abbey Road Studios, obsessing 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:56.220 over the perfect crossfade between two songs, 00:05:56.500 --> 00:05:58.759 only to have an executive thousands of miles 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:00.759 away slice it up for a quick buck. You would 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.319 drive any artist crazy. That boiling frustration 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:05.600 is the perfect primer for what happens next. 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:09.759 Because on March 25, 1966, the band meets with 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.170 British photographer Robert Whitaker at his studio 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:14.730 in Chelsea. Yeah, and context is key here. Yeah. 00:06:14.910 --> 00:06:16.629 The band had been out of the public eye for about 00:06:16.629 --> 00:06:18.389 three months at this point. They were bored, 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:22.370 they were sick of the standard smiling pop star 00:06:22.370 --> 00:06:25.050 promotion machine, and they were really leaning 00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:27.870 into a much darker cynical sense of humor. They 00:06:27.870 --> 00:06:30.829 were ready to push back. Exactly. And Whitaker 00:06:30.829 --> 00:06:33.129 was the perfect collaborator for that specific 00:06:33.129 --> 00:06:36.079 mood. He wanted to break new ground and plan 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:39.079 this highly conceptual art piece. Which he titled, 00:06:39.379 --> 00:06:42.139 A Somnambulant Adventure. Yeah, Somnambulant 00:06:42.139 --> 00:06:45.240 Adventure. And the core idea was to critique 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:48.029 the sheer madness of Beatlemania. Because it 00:06:48.029 --> 00:06:50.709 was getting dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Whitaker 00:06:50.709 --> 00:06:52.689 had toured with them in America the previous 00:06:52.689 --> 00:06:55.930 August and was genuinely terrified by the hysteria. 00:06:56.129 --> 00:06:58.569 He watched fans literally try to tear the clothes 00:06:58.569 --> 00:07:00.930 off the band's backs. So Whitaker brings out 00:07:00.930 --> 00:07:03.230 the props for this shoot. And we are not talking 00:07:03.230 --> 00:07:05.470 about matching tailored suits and umbrellas here. 00:07:05.490 --> 00:07:07.470 Not at all. He brings out heavyweight butcher 00:07:07.470 --> 00:07:10.189 coats. He brings out decapitated plastic baby 00:07:10.189 --> 00:07:13.490 dolls. He brings out trays of raw, bloody meat, 00:07:13.810 --> 00:07:16.110 and a handful of false teeth and false eyes. 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:18.680 It's such a stark contrast to the mop -top image. 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:21.680 But the imagery was extremely deliberate. The 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:23.620 raw meat and the dismembered dolls were meant 00:07:23.620 --> 00:07:26.220 to represent the physical violence of their fans. 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:28.540 Like what they would actually do to them. Exactly. 00:07:28.740 --> 00:07:30.779 What the crowd would literally do to them if 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:33.519 the security barriers ever failed. He was basically 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:37.100 saying, you girls want to consume these boys. 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:42.269 Here is meat. Wow. That is dark. Very. and the 00:07:42.269 --> 00:07:45.110 false teeth and eyes represented the absolute 00:07:45.110 --> 00:07:48.110 falseness of idol worship, presenting these four 00:07:48.110 --> 00:07:51.589 regular guys from Liverpool as untouchable godlike 00:07:51.589 --> 00:07:54.449 images. Like a modern golden calf. Exactly that. 00:07:54.649 --> 00:07:56.430 What's crazy to me is that the photo everyone 00:07:56.430 --> 00:07:59.490 knows, the infamous butcher cover. was only supposed 00:07:59.490 --> 00:08:01.949 to be one fraction of a much larger piece of 00:08:01.949 --> 00:08:03.389 art. Right, a lot of people don't know that. 00:08:03.649 --> 00:08:06.009 Whitaker originally planned a triptych. And a 00:08:06.009 --> 00:08:07.889 triptych is a three -paneled piece of art, which 00:08:07.889 --> 00:08:10.310 is a format you traditionally see behind an altar 00:08:10.310 --> 00:08:13.129 in a classical church. OK, so again, Whitaker 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:15.170 is playing heavily with these religious themes 00:08:15.170 --> 00:08:17.410 of worship. Yes. And the other panels he had 00:08:17.410 --> 00:08:20.129 planned are just as unhinged as the meat photo. 00:08:20.149 --> 00:08:22.910 Oh, they're wild. One panel was going to be a 00:08:22.910 --> 00:08:25.629 photograph of a woman's womb with the beetles 00:08:25.629 --> 00:08:28.029 holding sausages that looked like umbilical cords. 00:08:28.029 --> 00:08:30.339 Right. I guess to remind everyone they were actually 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:32.860 born and not descended from heaven. Exactly. 00:08:33.019 --> 00:08:35.139 Tying back to the human element. And then another 00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:37.679 panel was going to show George Harrison standing 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.220 behind John Lennon, literally hammering long 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:44.059 nails into Lennon's head. Yeah. Whitaker actually 00:08:44.059 --> 00:08:47.879 cited the surrealist artist, Man Ray, as an inspiration 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:50.559 for that one. The nailing imagery was meant to 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:53.860 suggest trepanation. Wait, Trypanation, you mean 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.240 the ancient medical practice of literally drilling 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.539 a physical hole into someone's skull to relieve 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:01.519 pressure or let demons out? Yes, exactly that. 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:04.059 That is intense. The goal of all three panels 00:09:04.059 --> 00:09:07.100 was to brutally emphasize their fleshy, painful 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:10.159 human qualities over their status as plastic 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.399 pop idols. But he didn't even get to finish it, 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:14.919 right? No, he didn't. Whittaker never got to 00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:18.019 finish the elaborate tryptic. The Beatles basically 00:09:18.019 --> 00:09:20.710 hijacked the concept mid -shoot. They just loved 00:09:20.710 --> 00:09:23.649 the meat photos that much. They did. They saw 00:09:23.649 --> 00:09:25.990 the photos of themselves in the bloody butcher 00:09:25.990 --> 00:09:29.649 smocks surrounded by meat and doll parts and 00:09:29.649 --> 00:09:32.889 insisted on using that single image as the official 00:09:32.889 --> 00:09:36.110 album cover for Yesterday and Today. And Capitol 00:09:36.110 --> 00:09:38.769 President Alan Livingston was immediately against 00:09:38.769 --> 00:09:41.070 it. Oh, he was horrified. He begged them to change 00:09:41.070 --> 00:09:43.970 it, but they forced it through anyway. But wait, 00:09:44.210 --> 00:09:45.909 think about this from the public's perspective 00:09:45.909 --> 00:09:49.250 for a second. OK. So the Beatles and Whitaker 00:09:49.250 --> 00:09:52.070 were basically doing high -concept avant -garde 00:09:52.070 --> 00:09:54.669 performance art about idol worship in a Chelsea 00:09:54.669 --> 00:09:57.649 studio. Right. But when you just slap that single 00:09:57.649 --> 00:09:59.789 photo on a piece of cardboard in an American 00:09:59.789 --> 00:10:02.590 record store, the public just sees a slasher 00:10:02.590 --> 00:10:05.009 movie poster. Completely. It's like doing a high 00:10:05.009 --> 00:10:07.210 fashion runway shoot, printing it totally out 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:09.929 of context in a Sunday newspaper, and then wondering 00:10:09.929 --> 00:10:12.389 why people are confused. That's a great comparison. 00:10:12.779 --> 00:10:15.220 The context was completely erased. But you have 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:17.360 to remember, the Beatles were actively trying 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:19.259 to shatter the wholesome formula. They wanted 00:10:19.259 --> 00:10:22.519 the shock value. Yes. And when Capitol pushed 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:25.960 back, Lenin and Paul McCartney insisted the photo 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:28.299 was actually their statement against the Vietnam 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:31.360 War. Wait, really? The Vietnam War? That was 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.970 the defense. Oh. And this raises an important 00:10:33.970 --> 00:10:36.409 question, right? Looking at this purely through 00:10:36.409 --> 00:10:40.090 the lens of 1966 historical context, Lenin's 00:10:40.090 --> 00:10:43.750 argument was that if society could tolerate the 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:47.590 brutal, bloody imagery of a real war broadcast 00:10:47.590 --> 00:10:50.490 on the nightly news, then they shouldn't be outraged 00:10:50.490 --> 00:10:53.090 by a satirical photograph of plastic dolls. Okay, 00:10:53.210 --> 00:10:55.769 that is a brilliant pivot. It is. But it asks 00:10:55.769 --> 00:10:57.950 a lot of the average teenager buying a record 00:10:57.950 --> 00:11:01.029 at Sears. It really does. And it asks who really 00:11:01.029 --> 00:11:03.279 controls the narrative. Is it the artist who 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.580 creates it, or the audience who interprets it 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:07.500 at face value? Well, the audience definitely 00:11:07.500 --> 00:11:09.879 interpreted it at face value, and it went terrible. 00:11:09.940 --> 00:11:12.500 The complete disaster. So Capital prints up about 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:15.000 750 ,000 copies of the album with the butcher 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.360 cover. A massive run. And they send about 60 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.679 ,000 of those out to the media, to radio DJs, 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.220 and to distributors all ahead of the planned 00:11:23.220 --> 00:11:26.299 June 15 release date. Imagine you're a record 00:11:26.299 --> 00:11:29.759 store quirk in 1966. You open a box expecting 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:32.240 four smiling guys with mop tops. and instead 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.419 it looks like a crime scene photo. The reaction 00:11:34.419 --> 00:11:37.600 was instantaneous outrage. I mean, disc jockeys 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:39.919 were completely appalled. They wouldn't touch 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.980 it. No. Retailers took one look at the gory image 00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:45.820 and outright refused to stock the record on their 00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:49.059 shelves. Sears and Roebuck, which was a massive 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:51.559 distributor at the time, said absolutely not. 00:11:51.799 --> 00:11:54.620 So on June 10th, Capitol hits the panic button. 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:57.220 Hard. They launch this emergency initiative called 00:11:57.220 --> 00:11:59.679 Operation Retrieve. Which sounds like a military 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:02.179 off. It basically was. It was a nationwide recall 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:04.379 of the album and all the promotional posters. 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:08.620 And this operation cost the label $250 ,000 in 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:12.120 1966 dollars. Which is astronomical. That wiped 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:14.379 out all of their projected initial profit for 00:12:14.379 --> 00:12:17.259 the album overnight. Gone. But how do you even 00:12:17.259 --> 00:12:21.200 logistics a recall of 750 ,000 cardboard sleeves 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.220 spread across a continent. Well it was a nightmare. 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:25.620 Capital quickly realized they couldn't possibly 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:27.600 destroy all of them. Right. One pressing plant 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:30.360 in Jacksonville, Illinois did actually send a 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:33.000 huge portion of their stock to a landfill. Just 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.840 threw them in the trash. They actually buried 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:36.960 the records under water and dirt so teenagers 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.019 couldn't just go dig them out of the trash. Wow. 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:41.159 But for the vast majority of the stock sitting 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:43.940 in warehouses in Los Angeles and Scranton, Pennsylvania, 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.399 Capital decided on a cheaper, faster fix. Right. 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:49.720 Here's where it gets really interesting. They 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:53.860 quickly photographed a tame, incredibly replacement 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:56.820 photo. The trunk photo. Yes a sullen looking 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:59.559 shot of the band just sitting around an open 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:02.940 steamer trunk. and they literally just glued 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.419 that new photo directly over the original butcher 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:07.440 covers. It's the worst cover -up of all time. 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:09.960 It really was. It's like trying to hide a massive 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:12.860 red wine stain on a white carpet by just dropping 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.679 a slightly smaller beige napkin over it. Exactly. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.679 Everyone still sees the edges. Did these executives 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:21.580 really think millions of teenagers wouldn't immediately 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:23.700 realize there's a forbidden photo underneath 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:26.029 and try to peel that sticker off? Well, they 00:13:26.029 --> 00:13:27.529 definitely didn't think it through. They didn't 00:13:27.529 --> 00:13:29.950 even place the stickers perfectly square on the 00:13:29.950 --> 00:13:32.090 cardboard most of the time. Because they were 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:34.570 rushing. Yeah. Because the Paste Over sticker 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:37.169 would sometimes hang off the edge, Capitol workers 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:40.210 had to run the finished albums through a trimmer, 00:13:40.429 --> 00:13:42.450 literally slicing about an eighth of an inch 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:44.389 off the edge of the cardboard. So the record 00:13:44.389 --> 00:13:47.429 sleeves are actually smaller. Yes. It was botched 00:13:47.429 --> 00:13:50.889 in every sense. And the cover was highly divisive, 00:13:50.929 --> 00:13:53.990 even within the Beatles' own inner circle. Really? 00:13:54.169 --> 00:13:56.850 Oh, yeah. George Martin thought it was disgusting 00:13:56.850 --> 00:13:59.289 and proved the band were acting like, quote, 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:01.929 mad men. Even George Harrison later admitted 00:14:01.929 --> 00:14:04.950 he thought it was gross, stupid, and naive. He 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:06.690 said they thought they were being cool and edgy, 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:09.350 but looking back, it just came off as dumb. Yeah, 00:14:09.509 --> 00:14:12.549 though Lenin genuinely believed the media's outrage 00:14:12.549 --> 00:14:15.250 was entirely misplaced. He stood by it. He did. 00:14:15.929 --> 00:14:19.129 But looking at the cultural impact, this is the 00:14:19.129 --> 00:14:21.889 very first time the American media and distributors 00:14:21.889 --> 00:14:25.190 actively criticized the Beatles' judgment. That's 00:14:25.190 --> 00:14:28.669 a huge shift. Up until the summer of 1966, the 00:14:28.669 --> 00:14:31.570 Beatles had a golden touch. Everything they did 00:14:31.570 --> 00:14:34.190 was brilliant. This cover controversy marked 00:14:34.190 --> 00:14:37.149 a turning point in their cultural invincibility. 00:14:37.590 --> 00:14:40.389 It was the first real crack in the armor. Yet, 00:14:40.710 --> 00:14:43.450 despite the massive recall and despite the national 00:14:43.450 --> 00:14:46.990 outrage and despite the incredibly clumsy paced 00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:50.450 over job, the album was a smash hit anyway. Of 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:53.080 course it was. It knocked Frank Sinatra's strangers 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.500 in the night off the number one spot on the billboard 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:57.960 charts. It stayed at number one for five weeks 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:00.019 and eventually went double platinum. Because 00:15:00.019 --> 00:15:02.799 the music was still undeniable. Right. But Capitol 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:05.620 Records, in their frantic, penny -pinching attempt 00:15:05.620 --> 00:15:08.519 to bury their mistake, accidentally created an 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:10.879 entirely new grading system for record collectors. 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:14.120 I love this part. This panic worth the taxonomy 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:16.679 of album states that collectors still use today. 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.019 This is fascinating for anyone who loves physical 00:15:19.019 --> 00:15:21.340 media. So let's break down the mechanics of these 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:23.840 states. OK. First, you have the first state covers. 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:26.320 These are the pristine butcher covers that never 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:28.519 had the trunk photo -pasted on them. The Holy 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:30.980 Grail. Right. They were never recalled, or they 00:15:30.980 --> 00:15:33.299 slipped out the back door. Incredibly rare. Very 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:36.080 rare. Then you have the second state covers. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.179 These are the paste overs that have survived 00:15:38.179 --> 00:15:41.320 intact. And there's a specific trick to identifying 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:45.039 them, right? Yes, there is. If you hold a suspected 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:49.139 second state cover up to the light and look closely 00:15:49.139 --> 00:15:51.419 at the right side of the trunk photo. Right around 00:15:51.419 --> 00:15:53.559 where the title is. Exactly. Right in alignment 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:56.259 with the word today show. Today from the title, 00:15:56.700 --> 00:16:00.100 you can actually see the dark v -neck of Ringo 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:02.620 Starr's shirt from the butcher photo bleeding 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:05.000 through the paste over sticker. That is so cool. 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:07.500 That v -neck bleed is the ultimate telltale sign. 00:16:07.700 --> 00:16:09.840 You'll see collectors squinting at old records 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.480 and thrift stores looking for that specific shadow. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.500 And then you have the third state covers. These 00:16:15.500 --> 00:16:17.620 are the albums where fans actually attempted 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:20.740 to peel the trunk photo off to reveal the gory 00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:22.940 original underneath. Yeah, the third state. But 00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:26.019 how were kids even doing this in 1966? Usually 00:16:26.019 --> 00:16:28.720 with their mother's steam iron, or a damp sponge. 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:32.159 Oh my gosh. The steam melts the 1960s hide glue 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.539 that Capitol used. But it was a high -stakes 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:37.340 suburban art restoration project. I can imagine. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:39.740 Because if you got the cardboard too wet, you 00:16:39.740 --> 00:16:42.340 would peel the paper right off the butcher cover 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:45.019 beneath it, leaving a massive white tear across 00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:47.779 Paul McCartney's face. Disaster. And if you used 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:50.240 too much heat, you would bake the glue in permanently. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:54.179 Oh no! Some fans did it meticulously, but many 00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:57.000 did it messily, leaving these faint horizontal 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.620 glue lines across the cover. So what does this 00:16:59.620 --> 00:17:02.190 all mean? To me, finding a first date record 00:17:02.190 --> 00:17:05.230 in the wild is like discovering a misprinted 00:17:05.230 --> 00:17:07.849 stamp or pulling a Willy Wonka golden ticket 00:17:07.849 --> 00:17:10.049 out of a chocolate bar. It really is that level 00:17:10.049 --> 00:17:12.430 of excitement. It's wild to marvel at the fact 00:17:12.430 --> 00:17:15.410 that a massive corporate coverup literally engineered 00:17:15.410 --> 00:17:18.170 a multi -generational treasure hunt. Like, people 00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:20.569 are still scouring attics today. They absolutely 00:17:20.569 --> 00:17:22.710 are. And the financial value of these records 00:17:22.710 --> 00:17:25.450 has skyrocketed over the decades. I bet. First 00:17:25.450 --> 00:17:27.569 dates were always considered incredibly rare. 00:17:27.849 --> 00:17:31.589 But then, in 1987, a legendary discovery shook 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:34.170 the collector market. What happened? The son 00:17:34.170 --> 00:17:37.309 of Alan Livingston. Wait, the capitol president? 00:17:37.509 --> 00:17:40.650 Yes, the capitol president that originally begged 00:17:40.650 --> 00:17:43.970 the band not to use the photo. His son offered 00:17:43.970 --> 00:17:47.549 24 pristine, still -sealed first -date copies 00:17:47.549 --> 00:17:50.710 for sale at a Beatles convention. Wait, how did 00:17:50.710 --> 00:17:53.329 the president's son get a hold of two dozen sealed 00:17:53.329 --> 00:17:55.670 copies? Because when the recall happened in June 00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:59.460 1966, Allen Livingston walked out of the warehouse. 00:18:00.009 --> 00:18:02.210 took a whole case of the already sealed albums 00:18:02.210 --> 00:18:03.650 right before they were going to be destroyed 00:18:03.650 --> 00:18:06.309 or pasted over and he just stashed them in a 00:18:06.309 --> 00:18:09.710 closet at his home in Los Angeles. They just 00:18:09.710 --> 00:18:12.490 sat in the dark for over 20 years. That is the 00:18:12.490 --> 00:18:14.849 ultimate insider trading of the record collecting 00:18:14.849 --> 00:18:17.230 world. It really is. These are known today as 00:18:17.230 --> 00:18:19.890 the Livingston Butchers. And out of those 24 00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:23.430 records, 19 were pressed in mono audio and five 00:18:23.430 --> 00:18:25.869 were pressed in stereo. Now, why does the audio 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:28.009 format matter so much for the value? Because 00:18:28.009 --> 00:18:30.849 of the consumer technology landscape in 1966. 00:18:31.650 --> 00:18:34.329 Mono record players were cheap, portable, and 00:18:34.329 --> 00:18:36.029 seating in every teenager's bedroom. Right, the 00:18:36.029 --> 00:18:39.009 kids had mono. Exactly. Stereo systems were expensive, 00:18:39.130 --> 00:18:41.250 high fidelity equipment, usually owned by adults. 00:18:41.329 --> 00:18:43.170 Oh, I see where this is going. Capital pressed 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:46.170 mono records at a 10 to 1 ratio compared to stereo. 00:18:47.009 --> 00:18:49.289 And the adults buying expensive stereo records 00:18:49.289 --> 00:18:51.789 were not the target demographic for a compilation 00:18:51.789 --> 00:18:54.009 album featuring a bloody meat cover. So they 00:18:54.009 --> 00:18:56.789 made way less of them. So those five stereo Livingston 00:18:56.789 --> 00:18:59.700 butchers are the rarest of the rare. Wow. To 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.319 give you an idea of the modern market, in 2016, 00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:05.640 a mint condition first state stereo copy in its 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:10.839 original shrink wrap sold for $125 ,000. $125 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:14.759 ,000? Yep. For an album that capital executives 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:17.480 literally buried in a landfill because they considered 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:20.000 it toxic trash. It's incredible. And if we connect 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.720 this to the bigger picture, this one artifact 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:25.339 really synthesizes the Beatles' entire legacy 00:19:25.339 --> 00:19:28.119 in America. How so? Well, Yesterday and today 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:31.440 was derided by critics at the time as a rag bag 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:35.220 of leftover tracks. It featured a botched, wildly 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:38.059 misunderstood art project. True. Yet it became 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:41.039 absolutely iconic precisely because of its flaws 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:42.859 and because of the corporate attempt to erase 00:19:42.859 --> 00:19:45.940 it. It perfectly encapsulates the messy eternal 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:48.640 tension between art and commerce. It's the ultimate 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.500 unintended consequence. You start with a corporate 00:19:51.500 --> 00:19:54.099 compilation album. Like a Frankenstein made solely 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:56.480 to squeeze extra money out of the North American 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.519 market by exploiting royalty loopholes. Right. 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:02.799 And then that corporate greed sparks a surrealist 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.119 rebellion from the artists. Which backfires. 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:08.200 Right. That rebellion causes a quarter million 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:11.660 dollar corporate panic. And ultimately that panic 00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:13.619 creates one hundred and twenty five thousand 00:20:13.619 --> 00:20:17.079 dollar piece of holy grail memorabilia. It's 00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:19.279 a brilliant cycle. But I want to leave you with 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.960 one final thought to mull over. Okay, let's hear 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:24.319 it. We look back on the butcher cover today as 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.720 this massive, defiant statement of artistic rebellion. 00:20:27.900 --> 00:20:30.000 The Beatles standing up to the suits. Right. 00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:32.539 But in reality, it was just a temporary glitch 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:34.319 in the Capitol Records machine. What do you mean? 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:36.519 The band eventually compromised, the cover was 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:38.819 changed, and the Beatles went right back into 00:20:38.819 --> 00:20:41.599 the studio to make music and make money for the 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:44.200 exact same record label. Oh, wow. So the question 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:47.900 is, does true artistic rebellion require walking 00:20:47.900 --> 00:20:51.539 away from the system entirely? or is subverting 00:20:51.539 --> 00:20:54.400 the system from within, even if it results in 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:56.859 your art being covered up by a cheap paste -over 00:20:56.859 --> 00:20:59.640 sticker, the ultimate power move. That really 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:01.779 reframes the whole story. I mean, the butcher 00:21:01.779 --> 00:21:04.019 cover proves that sometimes the most valuable 00:21:04.019 --> 00:21:07.400 piece of history isn't the pristine, clean version. 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:09.599 Not at all. It's the messy one, the one with 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.220 the glue stains, the peel marks, and the dark 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:14.400 v -neck bleeding through from underneath, reminding 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:16.579 you that there is always something wilder hiding 00:21:16.579 --> 00:21:17.700 just beneath the surface.